Secret Places

Specialized Technical Services by Granite Island Group

We provide a range of unique and hard to find technical services that are of extraordinary value to our clients; most especially to senior executives within an organization, attorneys, medical, aerospace, defense, education, research, media, and the arts and entertainment industry along with others. Please see the list below for details to get an idea of some of the highly specialized technical services we offer.

TSCM - Technical Surveillance Counter-Measures

All modalities of finding any kind of eavesdropping device, or weakness that a spy could exploit to gain access to your secrets, private, or confidential matters. We also methodically and laboriously ferret out anything that a spy could use that is technical or even structural in nature, or within the building construction that may not be electronic, or which may be sleeping and remotely controlled (something that most U.S. government TSCM teams are profoundly ineffective in finding). Many of our clients (both government or private) have discovered that while previous TSCM firms they have engaged looked for bugs alone, those same firms never detected or located the gaping holes in the walls above the ceiling, or the microphones located in small holes drilled in the concrete of the floor beneath their feet, nor the digital recorder and microphones concealed inside their gaskets of their windows. We excel in finding both conventional bugs, and also bugs they rely on a spy penetrating the structural aspects of the building itself... with very impressive results, and a proven track record.

Radio Frequency Analysis

Evaluation of every signal on the airwaves to include essentially any frequency, utilized at any time period, with any kind of coding or ciphering, and with any modulation method. While this focuses on seeking out any kind of covert eavesdropping devices which may use radio frequencies, some customers have found our expertise in detecting and measuring RF energy to be of significant value in mapping out broadcast facilities, identifying sources of electronic noise, and cataloging the signals that may be emanating from a particular location. Customers have also utilized these services to plan cell phone sites, WiFi coverage, design products, and correct deviations in navigation systems.

Eavesdropping Device Detection

We are very skillful in finding virtually any eavesdropping device made, and maintain the world's largest database and technical profile of eavesdropping devices, which enables us to find more bugging devices, faster then anybody else. This is accomplished with a much lower level of visibility with less chance the spy will be aware that we are in pursuit. Even if the device is leading edge, and just hitting the market, our engineers are likely several years ahead in the ability of detecting any new device. Remember, this is what we do full time!

Hidden Video Camera Detection

We can find video cameras faster, and more effectively then many other firms, and very often (and historically) can detect the covert cameras from well outside of the building - often within mere minutes of initially getting near or entering the building. This includes the detecting and locating not only of video cameras that may transmit over the airwaves such as microwave devices, but also the detecting of hardwired cameras, recording, and remotely controlled video devices.

Wiretap Detection

The detection and location of wiretaps is a lost art, and many TSCM companies rely on either profoundly ancient equipment, or equipment that may look fancy, but which is of little practical value. Wiretap detection requires both a solid grasp on the basic telephone operation, transmission systems, local loop parameters, switching systems, fiber optic networks, and other topics, which take years - if not decades to gain a solid grasp on. We maintain leading edge equipment and methods, own the most effective tools, and have solid experience of all of the elements of telecommunications systems, wiretaps, and how to trace the wiretap back to the spy. We also have considerable experience in the installation of very large (and often very classified) phone systems in major defense facilities, universities, hospitals, and government facilities. We can map out the wiring of a telephone system over a few dozen feet, or over a few dozen miles, and can effectively locate devices in either. We can get into a building, and trace out phone and wiring systems to identify the weak point that an eavesdropper is most likely to try to penetrate with a wiretap; and can do this during normal business hours without alerting either the eavesdropper or your staff. Even highly sophisticated "classified" high-impedance slaves will readily reveal their location to us, as will split-resplits, inductive pick-offs, and telephone switching, PBX, or voicemail systems that have been modified by the eavesdropper. Some of the equipment which we use for evaluations of a single telephone line may literally involve thousands of measurements on just a single cable. Our wiretap detection capabilities have also been able to detect sophisticated devices in classified facilities where government TSCM teams had failed to successfully detect during multiple TSCM inspections, but we detected these bugs with no problem in mere minutes.

Time and Frequency Domain Reflectometry

TDR and FDR methods allow us to trace, identify, and evaluate any conductors, on whatever configuration they may present themselves. We can find eavesdropping devices that have been wired into building power, alarm circuits, telephone wiring, data networks, or outside telephone lines, including photonic or fiber optic communication system. These services are not limited to TSCM activities in that many of our customers engage use to help resolve chronic failure points in cabling in aircraft, underground mines, and oil-wells, as well as highly delicate faults on both underground, and undersea fiber optic systems. Our services can save an aviation company millions of dollars in the cost of tearing down an aircraft wing, fuselage, or engine to find a frayed wire, or a defense or government site may engage us to document water penetration in cables between missile silos and command post, or of "shooting" a line to certify it before they pay the vendor who installed it. We combine our TDR and FDR expertise with pole counts, and pole mapping to create a detailed overlay so that as measurements are taken either during a TSCM inspection or other technical service there will be an appropriate point of reference. We were the first TSCM company to provide this service, and to this day remain the most proficient and well equipped.

Telephone or Speaker Phone Inspection

The modern telephone instrument that you use to place and receive calls is one of the most dangerous things that you can use, or to have anywhere near a discussion that you hope to be private. A simple telephone can be covertly modified ever so slightly which allows it to be converted into a very effective bugging device. A Telephone instrument inspection is an extremely important step in any TSCM project, and can lead to some pretty enlightening things being uncovered during an inspection. Even a telephone that has not been surreptitiously modified may be passing room audio due to a faulty design, or though normal wear and tear, but we are experts in finding such problems.

Tracking Device Detection

GPS based, cell phone pings, Lo-Jack, Guidepoint, and other tracking equipment and related techniques can be found by our firm in automobiles, trucks, boats, and even aircraft, clothing, luggage, or packages.

Computer Inspection and Evaluation

We can inspect your computer with something as simple as an anti-virus software package if you wish, or can fully dismantle every computer, monitor, and printer in your office and analyze every wire, cable, connection, and circuit board found in each. The level of detail that we provide to a client seeking this type of service varies greatly based on the level of detail they require. As modern computers are highly sophisticated it is quite easy for an eavesdropper to open your computer and install a bugging device under the motherboard, or secure it to an expansion board. We can find these with no problem. This detailed type of hardware inspection is very time intensive, and required specialized skills, yet is beyond the capabilities of most private sector firms, and over out of the scope of most government TSCM inspection teams.

Electronics Engineering

Research, Development, and Prototyping of new products, including production of highly specialized, restricted, or exclusive use proprietary electronic items is one of our specialties. We are often brought in by venture capitalists or company executive management to assist in resolving problems with the design of a product, project, or installation. We can take a fouled up product design, correct the design problems, and assist you in restarting production of what had previously been a dying product. We are also involved in the design and manufacture of massively parallel cryptographic and signals intelligence siege engines that can seek out extraordinarily covert signals under automated control, and with minimal human intervention or involvement.

Computer Programming and Software Engineering

Development of Specialized Computer Software and Firmware including device drivers and related software to operate and integrate test equipment used for Signals Analysis, SIGINT, and TSCM. Development of ultra-long Fast Fourier Tranform algorithms in both FPA and DSP based platforms, and using ASIC and FPGA solutions in the design of ciphering systems. Design of massively parallel Fast Fourier Transform systems and software design radios to resolve huge sections of the RF spectrum into high resolution data files.

Intelligence Analysis

By starting with only the most limited, and roughest of collected information we can perform an intelligence analysis that will assist you in coalescing the initial data into a cohesive format, which will assist in locating additional information from which inferences may be derived. This can range from our firm closely examining aerial photography to make maps and evaluate communications facilities, or to identify secret military facilities and map out espionage activities and listening posts. Journalists often engage us to assist in sifting though all of the noise that they find in a story they are working, using us to help get from the initial leads, and analysis, into the inferences and final reports. While we do not engage in the collection of intelligence, we can perform technical analysis on what is provided and point you in directions that you may not have previously considered. Business executives and diplomats often engage us to sift through huge volumes of raw intelligence to identify important trends and links which had not previously been noticed. Attorneys will engage us to study evidence and reports to identify details in a case which might has otherwise not been noticed, or where important information has been covered up by the other side. We has also been tasked with assisting medical facilities with scientific research due to our ability to detect and isolate trends and links that may be well documented, just not brought into a single cohesive discovery (we can look at your old research and find new information). We have even been engaged by Congress, the Executive Branch, and Intelligence Community to act as both a technical consultant and an intelligence analyst and to render opinions or testimony that has affected national security. Skilled at taking unclassified open source information, and deriving classified or proprietary information from same.

Executive Briefings

Executives love our threat mitigation briefings because we do not hold back on any issue we found, and we give them the ugly truth about their actual risks, without any political spin. We do not sugarcoat anything in the report and present them with the actual magnitude of the problems they are having (and not some politically correct gibberish and corporate double-speak); but always with recommended solutions that are appropriate to the threat. We are trusted advisors to many corporate and government executives, diplomats, and heads of state because of this. Remember that one of the critical things you can do is to preserve shareholder value, and we can help you do this.

Emergency Operations Planning

If you are in a situation where you may be calling on a firm to provide any of the above described services, then it is wise to establish an Emergency Operations Plan regarding TSCM well in advance where you and the firm you engage carefully choreograph how the event will be handled once it unfolds. We can assist you in developing a TSCM plan regarding Technical Penetrations or Eavesdropping EOP so that when a bug is found, or an eavesdropper is detected, your organization will know how to react with greatest effectiveness.

Modern electronic devices are fantastic, but they leak electromagnetic signals, and spit secrets and confidential information out in ways that an eavesdropper can intercept without ever having touched the equipment that is leaking. We provide the technical skills to detect these leaking signals and locate and correct their origin. We can provide TEMPST inspections, and design services, HIJACK vulnerability studies, and NONSTOP studies. We also provide emission control services where we study every signal of any kind which leaves your premises and study if it may contain classified or proprietary information that you are concerned with.